Mulligan back in court

FREMONT — An assistant county prosecutor who failed to report the abuse by his boss of a female employee has returned to work. Mark Mulligan, the former Ottawa County prosecutor who lost his re-election bid in 2016, was hired by former Sandusky County prosecutor Tim Braun in 2017. In 2019, he saw Braun rub his hands over intimate parts of the woman's body at the doorway to Mulligan's office. That incident, and others, led to the criminal prosecution of Braun and resulted in Braun being forced out of office. Mulligan has declined to respond to questions from the Register about this incident, although he did send one reply in November. The Register asked Mulligan to provide a statement about whether he witnessed any hostile or forced sexual behavior in the office. He responded with a one-sentence answer inside quotation marks and then wrote, "the foregoing is off the record." But what Mulligan told a state agent — which was different from what he told the Register — is on the record: He did witness the incident and talked with the woman because she seemed so startled by the unwanted physical interaction with Braun. "I asked (her) if that was OK. And, uh, because she had kind of looked at me wide-eyed. 'What's going on,' I asked her (and) I asked her if that was OK, and, um, she said it felt good," Mulligan told the investigator, according to a transcript provided by the state crime lab. Mulligan suggested to the investigator the woman changed her story about what happened, according to the transcript. She told the investigator she complained to Mulligan and was very upset by what happened. Required to act Under his county employment agreement, Mulligan was required to report any incidents of sexual harassment. He signed the county's anti-discrimination policy acknowledging he understood it, which states that failure to report incidents of sexual harassment, discrimination or other abuses could be grounds for disciplinary action up to termination. The Register reviewed the policy after obtaining Mulligan's personnel file from Sandusky County prosecutor Beth Tischler, who was appointed earlier this year to finish Braun's term in office and is unopposed in the November election for prosecutor. Mulligan had been working from home since the pandemic, and it was unclear whether he planned to return to work or resign. Mulligan did return to the office June 29, the deadline Tischler gave him after denying his request that he be allowed to continue working from home. She said last month she intends to discuss with him his failure to report the incident he witnessed and also other concerns about decisions he made regarding another sex crimes case. At least five women in the prosecutor's office filed complaints against Braun alleging discrimination and harassment. Three of them subsequently resigned, but two employees — including the woman Braun molested — are still working for this office. Tischler said she spoke to the two victims, and both told her they have no issues working with Mulligan. The Register recently asked both Mulligan and Tischler about whether his failure to report the molestation was a violation of county policy and if Mulligan would be reprimanded or counseled in some way as a result. The newspaper also asked about Mulligan's decision, when he was still Ottawa County prosecutor, to plea bargain a criminal case against serial rapist McClain Durst, and whether Mulligan was a good choice to prosecute future sex crime cases given he failed to report the molestation he saw with his own eyes, and he failed to prosecute Durst. Serial rapist gets deal By the time Durst hit the Ottawa County court docket, he'd already been accused of sexual assault and rape numerous times and had spent at least 45 months in prison on prior sex crime convictions. In late 2013, he raped an underage girl in his car after luring her on a date using social chatter sites, a pattern he repeated frequently during a decade-long run as a serial rapist. In 2014, Mulligan gave Durst a plea deal, dropping the rape charge and agreeing to a 53-day jail sentence. The plea deal was offered before the investigation was completed or DNA testing on evidence was concluded. Durst was released from prison on June 12, 2014. By that time, the local press had reviewed reports about his repeated attacks. A headline over a Register news article about Durst being released from prison warned: "Lock your doors, hide your daughters." "Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan is maintaining a wall of silence between his office and questions about decisions he's made in a number of court cases," the Register reported. "He also has not allowed anyone from the Ottawa County prosecutor's office to comment." After his release, Durst raped numerous underage girls — an untold number — until he was finally prosecuted in Huron County in 2018 in a multi-victim trial that resulted in convictions and a 33-year prison term. At the time, there was at least one other pending rape case against Durst — in Sandusky County — that was subsequently dropped. Durst, 31, will not be eligible for parole until 2040. Inmate #A753280, he's incarcerated in the Toledo Correctional Institution. What's next Mulligan's continued employment in the prosecutor's office was made an issue in the election campaign, which Tischler won decisively, earlier this year. Joshua Clark, an assistant Seneca County prosecutor who lives in Bellevue and was also a candidate for prosecutor, said Mulligan's mistakes had to be addressed. Tracy Thom, a victim's advocate, also questioned how Mulligan could credibly be a prosecutor in future sex crimes cases. "He hasn't shown respect for victims," Thom said. "He didn't for Durst's victim or Braun's victims. He's not the right person to be prosecuting sex cases." The Register asked Mulligan numerous times, more recently, if he disputes any reporting in the Register about him related to the Durst or Braun criminal cases. The Register also asked if he disputes the legitimacy of the questions being raised by Clark, and others, that we sent him. He's declined to offer any feedback or criticism. Tischler said she plans to respond to questions about Mulligan's status as an assistant prosecutor after she reviews information about Durst and his plea deal. Read: Braun still the boss